The Viennese antique dealer Christoph Bacher was for twenty years a Journalist and collector of archaeological artifacts, before he made himself in the year 2015 with a own art to act independently. Since then, his gallery is thriving, because it is the first of its kind in Austria since 1945, where the interest in the art of the ancient Egyptians and Romans, was once great.

Mr Bacher, Vienna until 1938, a centre of the antique trade. Where has acquired, for example, Sigmund Freud, the “old and dirty gods”, as he called his archaeological figures?

in this Country there was at that time a dense art scene, in the nobility of much interest, as in the upper classes, where the galleries were usually run by Jewish traders. Freud acquired much in Vienna, but he has also bought to travel in archaeological sites in Italy. There are also some fakes in his collection are, unfortunately, came, because, at the time of the “Grand Tour” was a good business. These fakes we have today, because they come from the ancient Original, often very close – such as “Greek” vases, which were painted around 1900 in Sicily.

Are you often confronted with counterfeits?

Yes. Twenty people offer me pieces that I need to disappoint, nine, ten. I have recently examined, together with an Egyptologist, a Salzburg collection, which has been worn for sixty years. Her owner bought in Egypt, as it was still possible, and the dealer have him mixed lot wrong with this – at least eighty percent are not real. But also I have bought in the previous year, in the South of France an Egyptian Bronze Statuette of a cat, which seemed from the outside, perfectly real. It was only when my restorer in Vienna, the Base fell, it turned out that the remnants of the casting core were made of a modern concrete alloy. In a leading American auction house was briefly listed on a similar, larger and much more expensive cat, which, instead, came from the same Forger. The cat was withdrawn after a note from us in a timely manner.

Have failed, the experts there?

What matters is the day-to-day dealing with the objects. To me something is listed, days, weeks and months. In the auction house, the time for such a detailed analysis is often lacking. In addition, I was able to build during the ten years that I was a collector, a very good network of friendly dealers and scientists.

What objects are to be asked to you the most?

still Egypt. I just sold a Bronze Statue of “Isis nursing the child” to Sydney. A private initiative by Egyptologists to build a collection, and it has found me over the Internet. My big advantage is that my prices thirty to forty percent below those of Swiss or London merchants, because I could be here all economies in Vienna is quite different. The Rents are not so high, also I have access to all the great collections in the third and fourth Generation of the car since the opening of my gallery Public again.

Why existed as a barrier?

The local collectors were not absolutely quiet, you didn’t even know that it exists. Often, the fear inventory, and you will not have the collection of the grandfather. We take the people now this uncertainty and offer them a place of communication.